It’s All In The Genes!! … 37 FISH — Belton Lake — 18 October 2010






I fished an after school “Kids Fish, Too!” trip today with little 5 year old Lily L. of Belton (and big people Sophia and Jason!) Lily came out with me a few weeks ago and so enjoyed the whole experience that she talked mom into going again.

5-year old Lily shown here in “mid-shriek” as Sophia and Jason help her show of a few of the larger white bass she caught “all by herself”. Jason finds “the shriek” humorous, as do I.


For variety’s sake, we fished on Belton today (last time we hit Stillhouse). Since a few weeks have gone by, the water has cooled a bit, and the sunfish that made up a sizeable part of her catch last time were not cooperating on Belton today.

Lately, Belton has been producing good numbers of fish, although most have been smallish. That, however, is not a bad thing when working with kids and/or novices as the small fish provide lots of action to repeatedly practice the fundamentals — on things like retrieve speed, hooksetting, rod posture, etc. Today was no exception … we found ample numbers of white bass and short hybrid at between Areas 474 and 214 first by covering ground with dual downriggers, then, once the fish showed themselves, after boating 5 in a row, we buoyed them and worked them over with smoked slabs. In all, we slabbed up 31 fish in this vicinity. I was really proud of Lily for this accomplishment … she properly held her spinning rod, opened and closed the bail when appropriate based on watching the line slip off the reel’s spool, worked her lure correctly and consistently, and she hooked up again and again thanks to her thorough attention to those basic details.

Around 6:25, with the S breeze dying off, some very light topwater action could be seen nearby. I rigged up a Cork Rig and did the casting for Lily, and she took care of imparting the nice, steady retrieve that put 3 white bass in the boat before the action died.

With sunset approaching and the shadows growing long, I suggested that we pose for some photos so they’d still be bright and colorful. Well, last time I took Lily out, I noted how she made a quaint “fish shriek” sound anytime a hooked fish got unexpectedly close to her or made a sudden movement when being unhooked. Well, today we discovered that the “fish shriek” is an hereditary trait that was passed down from her mother’s side. Jason and I were quite amused as we had multiple episodes of both “solo shrieking” and “duet shrieking”. Further study will be required to find out if this trait is dominant or recessive.

After taking all the photos Lily could sit still for, we headed off for one last stop to downrig from the gut just SE of Area 016 west to Area 147 for a shot at a sunset keeper hybrid for Lily. We no sooner arrived and got the riggers down (Jason was quite proficient by now) than line was screaming off of one of the rods with a hybrid attached to the business end. We boated that one — 17 inches. Jason then handed off a small white bass to Lily which struck his lure as he was resetting the downrigger. Then, we got one more strike and converted it to a landed fish — another hybrid going 16″.

In all, our tally was 37 fish, most small, but all perfect for a 5 year old little girl who has come down with the fishing bug early in life.

TALLY = 37 FISH, all caught and released


TODAY’S CONDITIONS

Start Time: 3:50p

End Time: 7:20pp

Air Temp: 84F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~75.5F

Wind: Winds were light from SSW at 8, tapering to near calm by sunset.

Skies: Skies were fair with 30% white cloud cover.